Abstract

FERRER, Mercedes  and  QUINTERO EGU, Carolina. Re-creating urban public space: A policy to build city and citizenship in Venezuela . Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2009, vol.15, n.1, pp.89-111. ISSN 1315-9518.

In 1996, the Municipal Institute of the Environment (MIE-MIA) was created in the Maracaibo municipality to make Maracaibo a “pretty city” and to attract investments, recovering urban public spaces, key environments for communication, social cohesion and building both city and citizenship. This paper evaluates the impact of this policy on the ordering of the urban territory and the image of Maracaibo and on the formation of citizen identity, during the period 1996-2006. A documentary and field review was performed; the recovered public spaces and the management model established were identified and located; questionnaires were applied to learn the opinions of the citizens. The paper concludes indicating that recovering public spaces has positively affected the structure and image of the city (recognized by residents and visitors) and the citizen-self-esteem of the “marabino” (person coming from Maracaibo). It emphasizes the need to act simultaneously on three fronts: rejecting projects that tend to privatize public space; managing and maintaining the recovered spaces through active citizen participation and  the culture of sustainability; and stimulating the application of this policy on the edges of the city - the urban periphery - as a route toward a sustainable city and citizenship.

Keywords : Public policy; environment; public space,; city; citizenship.